1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ice making machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to kits designed to retroactively fit an ice-maker to accelerate ice making.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of automatic ice-makers in refrigerator freezers is well known. They are limited, however, in the rate of making of ice cubes. It would be desirable to provide a kit which may be installed on existing ice makers which would substantially increase the rate of freezing and thus the production of ice cubes.
A presently marketed ice-maker known as the Acceler-Ice(copyright) system sold with new Kenmore Elite(copyright) product line refrigerator freezers (image not available) and made by WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION mounts on the front of the ice maker module which powers an AC blower motor. The motor is internal to the Ecceler-Ice(copyright) housing. Air is blown along the bottom of the aluminum die-cast ice tray. Air is moved in a direction parallel to the ice tray and is blown from the front of the tray to the back. The aluminum die-cast tray in this design creates a thermal and physical barrier. The air must cool the tray, which, in turn, must cool the water. The inventive kit blows cold air downward, perpendicular to and relatively uniformly over the ice tray, directly on the water itself, causing the water to freeze at a faster rate due to more rapid heat transfer and increased evaporation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,359, issued Aug. 1, 1989, to Mazzotti describes an ice-maker for use in a refrigerator freezer compartment and having an ice-forming tray supported on a carrier body. The carrier body has a housing with an air-circulating fan directing a flow of cold air from the lower part of the freezer ha compartment over one end of the ice tray, both above and below, during the ice-making process. The present ice-making kit directs a cold air downward directly over the ice tray of the automatic ice-maker upon which it is installed, thus uniformly increasing heat transfer and water evaporation and thereby dramatically increasing the rate of freezing relatively uniformly over the length of the tray. The ""359 patent merely directs cold air over the ice tray at one end and would not be effective in inducing a uniform high rate of heat transfer over the entire tray and would not induce substantial water evaporation uniformly over the tray.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,883, issued Jun. 7, 1994, to Newman describes an apparatus and method for increasing the cooling rate of an item and its contents within a refrigeration system. The cooled item is placed in a housing that includes a motor driven fan the apparatus is placed in a refrigeration system and the motor driven fan moves cold air through the housing. The ""883 patent moves cold air over the bodies of the sample containers rather than over an open top( the test tubes shown appear to be sealed by a cork or cap), thus, no cold air is directed to the open surface of a sample and no evaporation is induced in the sample to accelerate freezing, the principle employed by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,215, issued Feb. 3, 1998, to Choi describes a refrigerator having a quick-freezing facility. A blowing fan and an evaporator are arranged so the blowing fan forces air through the evaporator into the freezing compartment. The ""215 patent does not provide a system for blowing cold air downward, directly over an ice tray for increasing heat transfer and for inducing evaporative cooling of water to accelerate ice formation as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,717, issued Mar. 17, 1987 to Tate, Jr. et al. describes an ice maker assembly useful with the kit of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,362, issued Jan. 24, 1989, to Chestnut describes a modular ice maker having accommodation for testing which is useful with one embodiment of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,104, issued Jan. 20, 1998, to Howcroft describes a cooling device for use in a chamber such as an ice chest which employs a dry ice chamber having a fan operated to induce flow of air through the dry ice chamber responsive to a thermostat. The ""104 patent does not provide a system for directing cold air downward, directly over and ice cube tray, increasing the cooling rate and inducing evaporative cooling of water to accelerate ice formation as in the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a kit to increase refrigerator ice production solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The present invention is a kit designed to retroactively fit an ice-maker to increase the rate of production of ice. The kit comprises a bracket, a fan and fan motor, and a power source for the fan motor. The fan motor and fan is positioned above the ice maker within the freezer compartment and blows air downward, directly over the ice production tray which contains water. The circulation of a stream of cold air causes the temperature in the vicinity of the water to drop more rapidly than it would without the fan-produced circulation of cold air. Also, cooling is hastened by the induced evaporation of the water by the cold air stream. When the water is frozen, the ice maker ejects the ice into an ice container. The bracket provides support for the fan motor, which is secured to the bracket with four machine screws.
The bracket is installed by loosening the two ice-maker mounting screws, sliding the bracket between the ice maker and the liner wall of the refrigerator, and tightening the two screws. Where the ice-maker is installed by clips, the ice-maker may be removed from the clips, the clips may be removed from the liner wall, the bracket put in place, and the clips reattached to the liner wall through rectangular cutouts in the bracket, and the ice-maker reattached to the clips. The outer exposed edge of the bracket may be bent downward to increase the strength of the bracket, to absorb vibrations from the motor, and to aid in the direction of air flow perpendicular to the top of the ice maker tray.
For compact style ice makers, the electrical AC fan motor may be powered by an AC source within the refrigerator. For example, a connection may be made between the ice maker power connector and its mating connector in the refrigerator. This configuration for providing power is the preferred embodiment of the invention
On modular style ice-makers, a similar AC connection may be made as above, or, alternatively, a 115-V AC power source can be obtained by connecting to the test ports on the ice maker.
For modular style ice makers, an alternate power sources may be the ice maker module, itself. The ice maker module has test ports, used by service technicians to run electrical diagnostic tests on the ice-maker. A 115-V AC power source can be obtained by tying into the xe2x80x9ctxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9chxe2x80x9d test ports on the end drive. In such an embodiment, the cover assembly transfers the power from the ice maker module to the fan motor by way of a wire harness. The cover assembly consists of a front cover, a positioning plate, standoff mounting screws and nuts, brass probes, and insulated electrical wire. The front cover houses all of the above components and replaces the front cover that originally came with the ice-maker. As the cover assembly slides over the front face of the ice maker module, the two brass probes then slide into the proper test ports and make electrical contact within the ice-maker drive module. The cover has tabs on the top and bottom that snap into the ice-maker drive module, securing it in place. The brass probes are fixed in position through the positioning plate, which is secured to the front cover by three standoff screws and nuts. The standoff screws are used to space the positioning plate from the front cover to provide clearance for the insulated wires, which are soldered to the base of the brass probes. The other ends of the wires feed out the side of the front cover and are attached to the fan motor via terminals, thereby completing the electrical circuit.
A grill and a cage guard are provided on the upper and lower sides respectively, of the motor facing to prevent a user from contacting the fan blades.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a kit which may be retrofitted on an ice-maker of the type commonly provided in a home refrigerator-freezer which accelerates the production of ice.
It is another object of the invention to provide a kit as above which provides substantial air movement, at a close proximity to the freezing water.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a kit as above which provides for blowing air perpendicularly to the freezing water surface.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a kit as above which provides for blowing air directly downward on the water surface rather than on an ice-maker mold.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a kit as above which may be readily installed by a service technician or home owner by following simple directions.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.